Sisters of St. Joseph of Tipton

Article written by Sister Ruth Whalen, Archivist
December 1993

Link to the article here.

Sister Gertrude Moffitt was received into the community of the Sisters of St. Joseph of Cleveland, Ohio in 1879. When she received a letter from Father Lentz of Tipton, Indiana inviting her to come and establish a school in his parish, she was ready to go. With the help of the Superior of Watertown, New York, Sister Gertrude and two young novices, Sister Josephine Hynes, a friend of Sister Gertrude, and Sister Theresa Thistlewaite, a young girl from Sheridan, left for Tipton. Upon arrival, Sister Gertrude laid the foundations for the Sisters of St. Joseph of Tipton on March 15, 1888.

The Sisters endured many hardships in Tipton. The school was small, the parish was poor, and the Sisters didn’t have much income. They did fancy work and pieced quilts to provide extra money to supplement their parish stipend.

For many years, teaching and nursing were the two ministries of the community. They served the poor and needy in their first hospital, Good Samaritan in Kokomo, Indiana. Later the community sponsored St. Joseph Memorial Hospital in Kokomo and Mercy Hospital in Elwood. In addition, many of the Sisters cared for the sick in their homes.

Eventually, the Sisters moved from a small cottage to a brick building across from St. John’s in Tipton. This building was financed by Mother Gertrude’s father, a gold miner.

In 1900 the Sisters of St. Joseph, with the hlep of Father Anthony Kroeger, purchased a 200 acre farm north of Tipton. Originally, the St. Joseph Academy was to be built facing SR 19. But on August 6, 1902, 80 acres was purchased from Mr. and Mrs. Carson and groundwork began immediatly to build the Academy there. A sawmill was moved into the woods and workers felled the large oak trees and sawed them into the desired materials. The lumbers was hauled into the Fraulich Lumber Mills in Tipton to be seasoned and dressed. In the spring, the lumber was hauled back to the building site and on evening in 1903, Fr. Kroeger, Sister Magdalene, Sister Baptista and Architect Mr. De Curtady drove the four stakes to mark the site for the Academy.

In 1904, St. Joseph Academy was completed. This boarding school educated girls from all over the United States and Central America. In 1910 the St. Joseph Convent was built adjacent to the Academy. In 1932, St. Katharine Hall was built to house the gym, auditorium, and home economics department. In 1958, St. Joseph Junior College was established in renovated parts of the Convent.

As the Order grew in the 1950s, the St. Joseph Motherhouse was built in 1957. It housed Academy boarders, teachers, Sisters of St. Joseph Administration, and retired Sisters. It included a 15-bed infirmary.

Changes came in 1972 as the Academy, Convent and College were closed. In 1978, both the Academy and Convent buildings were razed. The Migrant Day Care used St. Katharine Hall from 1972 to 1991.

Following the Second Vatican Council, the community expanded their ministry beyond education and nursing to include counseling, hospital administration, pastoral care, pastoral ministries, evangelization, business, CCD directors, spiritual directors, music, calligraphy, pottery and community administration.

After the Academy closed in 1972, it became necessary to find a use for all the unoccupied rooms of the Motherhouse. The Sisters hosted wedding parties, small retreat groups and meetings of other religious orders. In 1978, the community voted to accept Co-Members into the Order. These Christian men and women share in the prayer life, help in ministries of the Order, and enjoy companionship with the Sisters.

In the 1980s, St. Joseph Conference Center grew, and the spirit of ecumenism was evident in the wide variety of church groups who utilized the Center. Through a grant from the Lilly Foundation in 1986, a Development Office was established to solicit funds to help ministries. “The Cornerstone” newsletter was created to inform relatives and benefactors of the Community and its ministries. In 1989, an anonymous donor built a Montana-style Log Cabin retreat home north of the Motherhouse.

On March 5, 1990, Sr. Ann Weller set out for the community’s first foreign mission in Port-au-Prince, Haiti. In 1991, the former Chaplains house was remodeled to serve as a second retreat house. It was named Little Noddfa, and was under the guidance of Sister Wanda Wetli who had returned from two years in the Wales retreat house Noddfa. In the fall of 1992, the community voted to refurbish the Motherhouse and rename it the St. Joseph Center to better reflect its use as a retreat and conference center. Renovation work was complete October 24, 1993 and included apartments for retired Sisters, a 12-bed infirmary, 25 refurbished ensuite guestrooms for retreats, and senior apartments.

The Labyrinth was dedicated and blessed Sunday, June 23, 2002 on the 10th anniversary of the Little Noddfa Retreat and Spiritual Life Center.

In 2007, the Tipton community joined with six other communities to form the Congregation of St. Joseph.

Although the property on Division Road in Tipton was sold to the Diocese of Lafayette in 2016, many sisters still live and minister in the area, while others have relocated to other centers.